Category — Vancouver

Mike Levenston of the City Farmer Society puts meat and fish scraps, dairy and waste food paper such as pizza boxes in Vancouver’s yard waste bin. Photograph by: Ian Smith, PNG, Vancouver Sun

If it is successful, there are plans to expand it to all neighbourhoods next year

By Jeff Lee
Vancouver Sun
July 12, 2011

Excerpt:

It can take years for recycling programs to catch on. It took 15 years for Vancouver’s blue-box recycling program to achieve a 77-per-cent participation rate. San Francisco, which brought in its food-scraps program in 2000, has a 30-per-cent participation rate. Seattle, which began diverting food scraps in 2005, has a success rate of 50 per cent.

But the incentive is there, says Chris Underwood, Vancouver’s manager of solid-waste management. Fully 35 per cent of the city’s garbage – or about 129,000 tonnes – is made up of kitchen and compostable wastes, he said. Of the more than three million tonnes of garbage produced in the region, 55 per cent is already diverted to recycling and composting.

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The connection between compost and food, and the education of children

Young people come to volunteer at Vancouver’s Compost Demonstration Garden as soon as summer holidays begin. Claire and Blair visited this week and helped us harvest our weekly donation basket of produce. They then delivered it to West Side Family Place.

Head Gardener Sharon Slack supervised the collection of vegetables and herbs, and provided the kids with a huge lesson in what lies beyond our supermarket shelves.

Andrea Bellamy tends to her wheat crop in Vancouver. Photo by John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail.

Mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton calls the lawns-to-wheat-field project “goofy” and cites it as evidence of a council that pays more attention to chicken coops and wheat fields than city basics.

By Wendy Stueck
Globe and Mail
Jun. 25, 2011

Excerpt:

In terms of land use, turning lawns to wheat fields is a poor way to boost local food production and reduce land, fuel and other resources required to feed a city, says William Rees, the University of British Columbia professor who coined the “ecological footprint” term to describe how much productive land it takes to support a given population.

“The last thing you want to use what precious little land we have in the city for is grain production,” he said.

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Maria and I met up with Holly Schmidt on the waterfront in False Creek, Vancouver, where we were shown the beginnings of a wonderful garden art project.

Exploring urban art and agriculture

Located in Vancouver’s “greenest development”, the Olympic Village, Grow explores sustainability issues through a series of walks, workshops and creative experiments in urban agriculture. Walks led by artist, Holly Schmidt and invited guests from architecture; design and the humanities focus on the challenges faced by rapidly growing and changing cities. Workshops invite people to imagine new possibilities for agriculture in the city through inventive prototype building to support the production of food in the urban environment.

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Duncan’s Backyard Henhouses: www.dailyeggs.com

This model fits the Vancouver bylaw requirements for 3 laying hens (12 square feet of coop space and ~30 in the pen). The coop sits atop a 4-foot by 8-foot pen, which provides adequate roaming space for your hens, while keeping them protected with 1/2-inch wire mesh.

To clean the pen or tend to the chickens,the top is hinged. An access door at the front allows for easy cleaning, while an egg door at the side gives access to the laying box that the hens share. Hens descend from a trap door to access the pen from the coop.

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Created by artist Jodie Mayne

Local artist Jodie Mayne created this sandwich board for our Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden.

Jodi Mayne is a Vancouver based artist who grew up in the beautiful Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. At the age of twenty she moved to Vancouver to study visual art at The Emily Carr University of Art and Design. During her schooling Jodi was mainly focused on Printmaking techniques and developed a real love for line and shape, which is now evident in her painting and drawing. Living and growing up on the West Coast of British Columbia has given Jodi an appreciation for the rich surroundings she is so fortunate to be a part of everyday.

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“Gardening the City of God” – Regent College course students visit City Farmer’s Compost Garden in Vancouver.

Culture is fundamentally what we do with the earth in order to provide sustenance for human life.

Transcribed and edited by Thea and Jon Reimer
Et Cetera
Apr 5, 2011

Excerpts:

LW: There’s a lot written on Christian ministry in the city that uses the metaphor of gardening. There’s a lot written generally on environmental issues by Christians. But, there’s practically nothing by Christians about specifically connecting people in the city to their sources of food or about urban gardening, which is a growing movement – no pun intended. There is a Christian silence here, which is challenging because we seem to be exploring something that isn’t being done very much yet.

MRW: Often in Christian literature authors refer to the Jeremiah 29 verses – to plant gardens, get married, have children. When they quote the verses they usually leave the gardening part out and if they do include that phrase, they do very little with it. The most we’ve found is an isolated paragraph here and there. It’s as if all that matters is human presence and action, but we can’t divorce ourselves from creation because of the simple fact that we have to eat in order to act and eating inevitably involves creation.

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“Essentially urban farming right now is illegal,” he says. “There’s no business license designation for it in the city and you can’t sell anything or deliver a service without having a business license.”

By Luke Brocki
The Dependent
June 6, 2011

Excerpt:

But today’s farmers and their allies don’t want to wait that long and are pushing for more leadership from City Hall. Among them is Arzeena Hamir, agronomist, co-ordinator of the Richmond Food Security Society and long a thorn in the side of local government officials and land use authorities.

“It is still not legal for you to grow and sell your products within Vancouver city limits. A backyard farm, or an empty lot farm, is not zoned for that in Vancouver. You can grow food for yourself, but as soon as you start brining in an economic component into it, you’re in that grey area. The climate at city hall is such right now that I think staff has been told to look the other way, which is great, because you won’t see anyone being prosecuted for farming. Unless someone complains.”

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Andrew Fleming, one of the founding members of Inner City Farms. Image by Adam Blasberg.

Photo Essay by Adam Blasberg

By Adam Blasberg
BCBusiness
June 6, 2011

Excerpt:

Inner City Farms is an agriculture collective that aims to turn the backyards of Vancouver into productive farmland. It’s a social enterprise whose goal is not only to put food on tables, but to put people in touch with the food they eat. As manicured lawns give way to rows of turnips, lettuce and radishes, and as urban farmhands spread out across the city, we’re reminded that tomatoes aren’t born in plastic six-packs. The next time you sit down to tuck into a meal, ask yourself, Where was this grown? How did it get here?

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Teacher Gord Trousdell. Photograph by Wayne Leidenfrost, PNG.

The course will consist of practical education in growing crops sustainably, soil science and biology

By Randy Shore
Vancouver Sun
June 1, 2011

Excerpt:

WEST VANCOUVER — Twenty-two students at West Vancouver secondary will be getting their hands dirty next September in the school’s first for-credit course in urban agriculture.

Physics and math teacher Gord Trousdell designed the course himself based on a framework for sustainability studies developed last year by the Ministry of Education.

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Looking at the soil in a vacant lot

By Melissa Iverson M.Sc. (Soil Science)
University of British Columbia – Faculty of Lands and Food Systems
2010, 39 pages

Introduction – How to Use This Guide

Have you ever walked by that vacant lot near your home, work, or school, and thought “I would love to make this place a garden!” If so, then this guide is for you!

The purpose of this guide is to help you answer some of the big questions about the environmental quality of your site. Questions like:

How can I find out if the soil is contaminated?
Is the soil deep enough for my plants to have healthy root systems?
Are there enough nutrients in the soil?
Is the site too shady for a garden?

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Park board chair Aaron Jasper stands on the roof of the West End Community Centre. Credit: Doug Shanks photo

Park Board chair will be advocating for roof-top gardens to be considered in the design of future community centres.

By Jessica Barrett
WestEnder
05/18/2011

Excerpt:

The aging roof of the West End Community Centre could bridge the divide between urban agriculture enthusiasts and area residents reluctant to give up valuable park space to community gardens, says park board chair Aaron Jasper.

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Video by BCIT Magazine, Liz Craig.

Nothing really brings together people like food – especially when that food is locally grown!

Article by Julia Smith
Dunbar Life
Feb. Apr. 2011

Excerpt:

My son gave me a sign he had hand-carved for Christmas. “Dog Gone Farm”, it reads, in jaunty red letters (inspired by our fence jumping dog). With the sign hung proudly on the front door, it was official. We were farmers. We grow fruits and vegetables, build soil, and raise chickens, which wouldn’t be unusual if it weren’t for the fact that we do all this in the middle of the city.

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Group empowers people with developmental disabilities

News Release
May 5, 2011

Event in Vancouver BC:
Saturday, May 14, 2011. Garden build 8:00am – 5:00 pm. At: 4410 Kaslo Street, Vancouver (across from the 29th Ave Sky Train Station)

‘Can You Dig It’ is an urban agriculture and community development initiative hosted by posAbilities, a not for profit organization that empowers people with developmental disabilities. In partnership with MOSAIC immigrant settlement services and the Simon Fraser Society for Community Living, a new 50 plot community inclusive garden will be developed at 4410 Kaslo Street in Vancouver. Para Space Landscape Inc. had generously donated over $11,000 of expertise, time and materials to this garden, and the City of Vancouver has offered the land. Over 100 volunteers will work shoulder to shoulder on May 14 to build the site in just one day!

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Stories of Urban Agriculture in Vancouver- Interview with Chris Thoreau from The Socio Capitalist on Vimeo.

The Socio Capitalist Interviews Chris Thoreau

By Luke Miller Callahan
The Socio Capitalist
05/02/2011

Excerpt:

Chris Thoreau is currently finishing his undergraduate degree in Agroecology at UBC. His focus has been on soils, urban farming, and plant breeding. Currently working on expanding the viability of urban farming as a business, he hopes to unite these three areas of study to help ensure the sustainability of urban food production.

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David Tracey stands near the Eco Pavilion in Strathcona Community Garden. The Eco Pavilion, a house-like structure with solar panels, is located off Prior and Hawkes streets. Photograph by: Arlen Redekop, PNG, Vancouver Sun.

From garden city to farm city

By Steve Whysall
Vancouver Sun
April 29, 2011

Excerpt:

Imagine Vancouver in the not-too distant future. There are food gardens everywhere. Mini-farms. On rooftops. In parks. Next to gas stations. Filling empty lots.

And there are fruit and vegetable kiosks dotted here and there, selling fresh, organically grown produce that has been picked only a few hours earlier.

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School Children at class in the garden

Kristin Woodhouse
BCIT Magazine
April 14, 2011

Students in Richmond are learning about food production and sustainability, but it’s not in a conventional classroom.

The Terra Nova Schoolyard Project was founded in 2006 by Chef Ian Lai, an instructor at the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver. Frustrated by his students’ lack of knowledge about how the food cycle works, he embarked on a quest to introduce children to where their food comes from.

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The Ladner Community Garden Society plans to start a community garden at Kensington Park North this spring. Pictured are (left to right) Ian Dick, Don Bruchet, Kristin Couch and Mark MacDonald. Photograph by Chung Chow, Delta Optimist.

Project, with over 40 plots available to rent on seasonal basis, will be set up at Ladner’s Kensington Park North

By Sandor Gyarmati
The Delta Optimist
April 6, 2011

Excerpt:

“As we go forward and start seeing a lot more high density, a lot of people won’t have a back yard, so there’s going to be more need for community gardens for people who want to grow their own food,” Crouch said.

Crouch believes once the word spreads that a community garden is available, the 40-square-foot plots will be taken quickly.

She pointed to the lengthy wait lists in the City of Richmond that has eight city-owned community garden sites.

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My Garden Bag

At this time of year, our Compost Hotline in Vancouver receives lots of calls from residents who want to buy soil or compost for their gardens. We have to scramble to update our resource list so we can advise people about the various soil mixes that are on the market.

Most people who order a large quantity of soil will receive it as a pile dumped off the back of a truck. MyGardenBag.com is something different.

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Early issues of Organic Gardening Magazine.

OG Magazine wins TreeHugger “Reader’s Choice” Award 1st place. City Farmer 2nd.

Started in 1942, Organic Gardening’s hard-copy magazine has a circulation today of over a quarter of a million. Founded by J.I Rodale, Rodale’s magazines reach more than 45 million readers in more than 50 countries around the world. The publisher of Men’s Health, Prevention, Women’s Health, Runner’s World, Running Times, Bicycling, Mountain Bike, and Organic Gardening, Rodale is the leader in providing actionable, authoritative, and engaging health and wellness content.

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